At a recent BCC meeting where we discussed my idea of funding the fire service with a consumption-style 1/2 cent sales tax to generate more revenue while simultaneously not adding more taxes to existing property owners--and instead providing a big tax break to Escambia County property-owning taxpayers-----a lowball figure of $24-$25 Million was thrown out as being "what the county's half penny generates yearly"
It seemed low, that figure.
And I remembered as a school board member we were doing that amount 5-6 years ago when I served on that board. Plus, the economy locally has gone straight up like a rocket since then--with the minor COVID recession of 2020-2021 (the economic pain of which was largely masked-over with unprecedented federal money printing and stimulus provision nationwide to).
So the natural question is this: Why Does the School District's 1/2 Cent Sales Tax Outperform the County's 1/2 Cent Sales Tax?
Look at this chart, below, that will be provided to the members of the school district's 1/2 cent sales tax watchdog committee later this week. This graph indicates the total revenue (quarterly and monthly reimbursements including interest/investment income on the funds) received from the school district's 1/2 cent discretionary sales tax over several fiscal years. Over the last 3 years the average revenue is what I thought the BCC's 1/2 sales tax should be--just under $30 million per year.
So I'm waiting for staff to clarify/explain--but it seems to me that their 1/2 penny is doing better than ours is. So if so, I want to know why. If not-----what is the real number the BCC's 1/2 penny is generating? I think my statements at the last meeting were right--$30 Million yearly.
But we will see when staff answers my query on this topic later this morning.
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